The Righteous and The Fallen
by Izuci
Summary: Three years ago, Commander Jane Shepard was betrayed and killed for being the hero. Now, she has returned and is searching for something. Chased by old friends and having to trust new faces, Shepard will cut a bloody path to get what she is looking for.


**Hi, hello! Izzy FM, coming at you out of the beautiful Huachuca Valley. I was throwing around ideas all week and thought up this crazy one, what if you took the Reapers out of Mass Effect? Leave the Relays and the Citadel and all that nice stuff, but the Reapers aren't around. (At least not right now.) It'd be weird, right? Hell yes, so that's the basic concept of this experimental fanfic of mine. Anyways, enough revealing of the story to come.**

**Please do enjoy, and remember: all reviews make writers happy and know what to work on to make you happy.**

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><p>"I don't know about this, Nassana, Eclipse mercs are good but we might need more help to make sure this exchange doesn't go south." Nassana's assistant was worried to say the least, while slave trade was legal with the right licenses on Illium, it was highly monitored and a dirty job. Nassana and her sister both often profited off of slave trade with Batarians and other less then savory beings, and Nassana's sister had been killed during a solo slave run, taken out by a Spectre who had been tipped off by an unknown party.<p>

"You worry too much, Kres, these Batarians don't have better guns than the Eclipse," Nassana said with over-confidence as they walked off the elevator onto the empty, paste-white 57th floor of the still under-construction Dantius Towers. They provided a nice quiet and secure place for Nassana to make deals, no cameras or Illium police surveillance in a building that was still barely constructed, perfect to conduct business.

"If you say so, ma'am," Her assistant remain uncertain as her and Nessana's entourage of Eclipse Mercenaries walked out of the elevator joined by another squad of mercs, including the Eclipse Commander, a Salarian named Gavik. He nodded to his fellows to fall in behind them as they moved to meet up with the Batarian's on the other side of the floor.

"It's about time, Nassana; I thought we'd be waiting for another hour until you decided to come next door." Marrl, Captain Marrl as he preferred, long-time kidnapper and slaver greeted her and her escort snidely, his four armed pirates going to his sides as Nassana stopped a pleasant distance from the irritating pirate captain.

"Do you have the shipments, Captain Marrl?" Nassana forced his loved title out; the Batarian always became easier to deal with when his ego was satisfied.

"Heh, yeah," he nodded his right hand man towards Nassana, the Batarian taking out a datapad while keeping a grip on his weapon and handing it to Nassana's assistant, who looked at the data carefully before handing it back.

"It's all there and registered with the dock authority," she said, bringing a smile to Marrl's face and to Nassana's, who nodded for a merc to bring up a credit chip. Marrl took the chip which read out five hundred and fifty thousand credits for the shipment.

Marrl was about to move to shack Nassana's hand when there was a very audible thumb that reverberated throughout the building with the lights flickering on and off. "The hell?"

Like the sound of a passing bullet train, the elevator rocketed down to the ground, smoke shooting into the room, and before a second thought, weapons were locked and loaded and both armed groups pointed their weapons at one another as the lights went out. Flashlights flickered on and shined through the smoke and darkness, both Nassana and Marrl glaring at each other.

"Never thought you would double cross, Marrl," Nassana said dangerously as her and her assistant backed up, Gavik moving to cover them.

"Me?" Marrl snarled behind the sights of his assault rifle, "You're double crossing us, Asari bitch!"

This made Gavik pause as he heard the Batarian say this, making the Eclipse Commander look to his Vanguard lieutenants who nodded and order their men to spread out moving past the confused pirates. "What are you doing, Gavik?" Nassana ordered worriedly.

"The Captain isn't the problem, ma'am," Gavik stated simply as Salarians do, "There's something else wrong here, I recommend you and the Captain find an alternate means of escaping."

One of the Vanguards with two mercs motioned for Nassana and her assistant to follow them to a service elevator. Everyone spun towards the main elevator as it thumped with a massive impact, the metal popping out as whatever on the other side bashed against it, and the impact hit again forcing the metal out even more. "What the hell is going on?" Marrl growled before shooting the door, but his bullets merely bounced off.

"Don't waste your time, those doors are bullet proof," Gavik hissed at the Batarian, motioning his squads into flanking positions on either side of the elevator. "Go, Mrs. Dantius!" He ordered and his Vanguards hurried the two Asari ahead.

"Screw it." Marrl said and ordered his pirates to do the same as the Eclipse, the captain joining Gavik. The elevator thumped again, the metal doors groaning as it reached its limit and the mercs and pirates all readying for whatever was on the other side.

"Come on, ma'am," the Asari Vanguard said calmly as she moved to check the elevator, her mercs pulling security when one was downed by a lightning strike that shot through the window.

"Goddess!" Nassana's assistant screamed as the Vanguard swung her weapon to the window which exploded out with a black fully armored woman flew into the room by zip line, a massive M-76 Revenant in her hands kicking back as it laid bullet after bullet into the Vanguard. The Vanguard was flung back as her barriers were tore open, blue explosions shooting out of her back onto the two Asari she was protecting. The other soldier was unprepared as he was shredded by the unknown woman's light machine gun, the pirates and mercs surrounding the elevator half-way stumbled to save their employer when the elevator doors snapped with a teeth shattering screech and then flew past them all, one door catching a merc and crushing him instantly.

They all then were greeted by the furious roar of an enraged, bloodthirsty young krogan armored in silver and armed with a hulking Claymore shotgun that barreled out of the smoking empty elevator shaft, and Gavik barely got out a scream as he was blown apart by the shotgun. Another merc was kicked in the chest by the krogan as he cocked his shotgun, the unlucky Eclipse soldier bouncing across the empty floor before crashing out of a window and screaming down to the Illium city floor.

The pirates were the first to get completely mowed down as the armored woman advanced on them, ignoring the two unarmed Asari that attempted to call the service elevator with little success. The krogan took several shots from the mercs to his right but just roared a war cry and charged at them taking two down with one shot and then throwing the others out a window like ragdolls. The other Vanguard was more prepared now that she had gotten her bearings; turning into a ball of blue light, she flew at the black armored woman, the impact knocking her back a few steps, and the Vanguard following it up with a biotic powered punch. The armored woman ducked the punch and grabbed the barrel of her light machine gun, dodging the following kick and then spinning around. The Revenant smacked into the Asari's face knocking her onto her back, and leaving blue blood splattered across the metal stock. The Asari groaned as her vision spun, her whole head pulsating with pain, and then a foot slammed into her chest keeping her from sitting up. The armored woman popped a bad heat clip out of the Revenant and then fired a single round into the Asari's head.

The young but massive krogan laughed as he held two struggling Eclipse mercs up by their necks, his shotgun hanging by a strap on his hip, and he walked up to the armored woman before smashing their skulls together. The woman sighed as she looked at the laughing krogan, resting her weapon on her hip as the two mercs dropped to the floor, dead.

"What? Just killing them is no fun." His deep, rumbling voice sounded amused as he fell into step at her flank as she walked to the two Asari still trying to flee.

"If you say so," the feminine voice sounded from the helmet's speakers, Nassana's assistant reached for the pistol of a fallen merc to defend herself but was quickly shot dead by the krogan.

"What the hell do you-?" Nassana almost demanded until the woman kicked the Asari's feet out from under her and then planted her armored boot against her throat. Nassana rasped for breath as she looked up at the woman, the Revenant's barrel hovering over her nose, and then she saw the 'N7' on the woman's armored chest. Nassana's eyes widened, "Shepard!"

The woman paused for a second, the Revenant lowering just slightly and the weight coming off Nassana's neck. Taking her off-hand off the huge assault rifle, she pressed a small button under her jaw, which caused the front of her helmet to pop out and then fold up over the top which slide to behind her head. Black hair fell to frame a beautiful, pale human face, silver-blue eyes looked down at the Asari with disgust and annoyance, her lips were painted black, and small blue scars with a slight glow lined her brow and around her left eye going down her cheek. "It's been awhile, Nassana; I can't say I missed you."

The pressure returned to Nassana's neck, and the barrel pressed against her eye. "What are you doing here, Shepard, come to finish off the family?" she rasped, her hands struggling to push the boot off her throat.

"No, I'm here for information; I need to find someone you work with, closely from what I hear." Shepard said, pressing the barrel harder down against the Asari's eye for emphasis, "The Shadow Broker."

"What makes you think I ca-!"

Shepard cut her off, her boot closing Nassana's throat, "You have been in contact with the Shadow Broker more than once, and I know, don't fuck with me!"

Nassana gasped for breath as the boot moved slightly off her neck. "I can't tell you where he is, no one knows."

"Yeah, that'd be too good to be true if you did, but all I need is a lead."

"Ah, shit," Nassana gasped for another breath before continuing, "Vasir, Tela Vasir, she's one of the Shadow Broker's liaisons and his top agent. She sticks to Illium, and she's using an investigation into the Broker's operations as cover."

"Another Asari to kill? These blue dancers are starting to get boring." The krogan groaned as he nudged one of the dead vanguards with his foot.

"She's with Special Tactics and Reconnaissance," Nassana said, coughing.

Shepard was surprised now, "A Spectre?"

"Yeah," she said, clearing her throat, "Untouchable."

"I'll be the judge of that," Shepard said, the sound of gunship thrusters caught the two's attention, and both the krogan and Shepard looked at each other; Shepard clicking the switch under her jaw, closing her helmet.

"You've been more help than I expected, you get to live because of that." Shepard said, taking her foot off the Asari's neck, and walking away towards one of the shattered windows. Nassana coughed and wheezed as she sat up, rubbing her sore neck, and then looking at Shepard.

"You won't get to the Shadow Broker, Shepard; he'll disappear before you ever touch him." Nassana yelled, Shepard and the krogan looked back her, and then both shrugged; walking off the edge of the floor. Nassana gasped as the both disappeared below the white floor, a gunship rising up next to a shattered window the next second, and Eclipse mercs jumping from the gunship onto the floor. Nassana sighed in relief as they moved to secure the room and one helped her to her feet. The power came back and the service elevator open. Beeping caught everyone's attention, all looking to the elevator.

Both Shepard and her krogan, Grunt smashed into the ground, their shields bubbling out and taking the fall. "I do hate slavers," she said to Grunt before the floor they just jumped out of exploded out lighting up the Illium night sky in brilliant blue fire. Grunt chuckled as they both walked away and got into a car that was waiting for them and zoomed away from the burning tower.

**The Righteous and The Fallen**

**Chapter 1: Hunters**

Detective Anaya looked over the destroyed floor of the Dantius Tower, fried armor filled only with ash was littered across the black scorched floor, and outside a still on-fire gunship remained spired into the tower seven floors down.

"What a mess." She said as she looked over everything, CIS teams were looking over everything and fire fighter cars were outside the building trying to stop the gunship fire from spreading.

"Detective," an Asari officer called to Anaya, "It's confirmed that Nassana Dantius was here when the bomb went off."

"Well, that takes care of that part of the investigation, I don't get why they don't have a Spectre looking into this, doesn't this fall under a terrorist attack?" She said as she took the officer's report.

She heard a small chuckle; obviously Turian, come from behind her at the maintenance elevator that now took the main elevator's place. "Speak of the devil…"

Detective Anaya looked confused as she turned to see a gray Turian with blue face paint and a blue eye-piece, stepping out of the elevator. He wore blue armor, military-issue by the looks of it, and had a scoped heavy pistol as a side arm. "Huh?"

"It's a human saying," The Turian said with a small awkward laugh, before extending his hand, "Garrus Vakarian, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

The Detective was surprised by his sudden appearance and shook his hand, he then moved past her observing the destruction. "Hm, anti-personal particle charge, military-grade, probably Asari." He said, squatting and picking up one of the helmets, "Any thefts at military bases reported recently?"

"No, we believe it was custom."

"Hm, possible, but it would be easier to just steal one, cheaper, too."

"I'll look into it."

Garrus stood back up, looking around he noticed differing armor. "There were more than just Eclipse Mercenaries up here with Mrs. Dantius."

"What?" Anaya asked as she walked up to look at what he was looking at.

"Design is Batarian, pirates or slaves. Looks like Nassana Dantius was making some secret deals with slavers."

"Slave trade is legal on Illium, Spectre."

"True, but I doubt that these Batarians had the right papers for what they were selling, once they got to someone who did, no one would be able to do anything about the money they made from selling the slaves."

"Huh, so, you think this is just a deal that went bad?"

Looking around again, Garrus thought as he took everything into account, "No, this a deal that was interrupted," he pointed at the pirate armors, "Five pirates, four are the same basic design, but one of them is better, and bigger, obviously the leader. He wouldn't have come along if he was going to do something that might get him killed." He looked back at the elevator, armored doors, broken in half. "Whoever interrupted it came through here; one of them at least. No way that this was a one man job even if it was a krogan that came through here."

"Krogan? A biotic could have done that to the doors just as well as a krogan, probably better."

"Made sense to say it was a biotic at first, but then there's this," the Turian Spectre gestured to the doors on the floor, on he put his hand on the impact point on the door. "A biotic would have just hit the door with a single blast to the center of the doors, making the two doors bubble out at the center. And even if they didn't do that, these two impact points," pointing that the other door with the merc armor underneath it, "are flat, like an armored boot, about the size of a Krogan's, hit them."

Anaya nodded at the facts presented and was impressed; he wasn't a Spectre for nothing, which was obvious. "Okay, and I do agree that there was more than one attacker; five pirates, eleven trained Eclipse, all probably with better positions on the elevator, that krogan would have been mowed down when he knocked the doors."

"Yes and there were different two weapons that were used to kill all of them, some armor has been blown apart by what could be a high gauge heavy shotgun, Claymore most likely."

"The Krogan."

"Yes, but the others have large bullet entries in their armor, lots of them; I'm thinking Revenant assault rifle, has a high caliber and-"

"High rate of fire," Anaya finished for him, he chuckled and apologized. "Another krogan, you think?"

"No, human, female." This made Anaya give him a dumbfounded look, waiting for him to explain how he knew that one. "It's the reason I'm here, Detective, and so far I have every reason to believe that my target is responsible for this."

"What?"

"Spectre missions are supposed to be completely classified, Detective, me telling you would be ill-advised," Garrus said with a grin, "But I could definitely use your help on this investigation while I'm on Illium."

"I doubt I'd be much help, Spectre, you seem to be a much better detective than I am."

"That may be, but I need someone that has good knowledge of Illium and someone that isn't dirty. I may be a Spectre, but I've tried to avoid Illium during investigations, so I'd be an idiot to not get someone's help with the area."

"Okay, I'll help as I can."

"Good, now we can't get any more from here." He said simply, motioning for her to follow. Anaya followed as he got onto the elevator with Garrus, and he set it for the ground floor.

"So, who's your target?"

"Jane Shepard."

"The First Human Spectre?"

"Yes."

"Holy shit."

"How much do you know about her?"

"Not much more than what's common. Was made the First Human Spectre three years ago, hunted and killed the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius and got the humans a seat on the council."

"And?"

"Was investigating mass kidnappings across the Traverse after the Saren Investigation, she joined with the terrorist organization, Cerberus, to find the kidnappers and destroyed them. And for joining them she was considered rogue, been on the run ever since?"

"Okay, here's the story; a month after the Saren Investigation was closed, two human colonies went silent, the council sent Shepard in and she came up with evidence that the Batarians had kidnapped the colonists, but the Council said the evidence was circumstantial, tried to avoid war and passed off Shepard's work, reprimanding her publicly for indirectly attempting to start an intergalactic incident. Cerberus offered help and she took it, she managed to catch the Batarian kidnappers, saved thousands, human, Turian, Asari and even other Batarians. She killed the Batarians. Fearing war with the Terminus Systems, the Council revoked Shepard's Spectre status and demanded that she return to face trial for war crimes and terrorism. She never did and neither did her crew, and with the SSV Normandy; a top secret Turian-Human design, Shepard was considered a threat to galactic stability along with her crew. Supplying a Batarian fleet with her exact location, the Normandy was shot down over Alchera in the Omega Nebula, and nearly the entire crew was killed."

They reached the bottom of the building and carefully stepped through the rubble of the fallen elevator, and then Garrus started leading them to the other tower. Anaya chose then to speak up, "So, I assume Shepard escaped?"

"No, she didn't. She went down with the ship." Anaya was surprised with the answer.

"The pilot of the Normandy said that he tried to save the ship, but Shepard refused to leave him behind, and she put him in the last escape pod before being sucked out into space. And even though we assumed he was covering for her, all the escape pods were accounted for and there was no other way for her to have escaped. She was considered KIA until a year ago when the SSV Normandy SR-2 was stolen out of an Alliance Shipyard by her and a team of soldiers from the colonies she saved. And she used an experimental AI to maintain the ship and also cut off any tracking devices for the Alliance to find her, she then used it to break out what little of the original crew that survived the Batarian attack and disappeared into the Traverse."

They both boarded an elevator in the constructed Dantius Tower and Garrus set it for the penthouse. "So, a human managed to survive an entire fleet shooting down her ship, and then survived reentry?"

"Heh, well, Shepard has overcome worse, more impossible situations."

"You sound like you're talking from experience, Spectre."

"I am," Anaya's eye widened at this, "She was my mentor, I guess you could say, during the Saren Investigation, convinced me to become a Spectre."

"And you're hunting her?"

"The Council thought it would be best, I'm the only one from her original team during the Saren Investigation that had any loyalties to the Council and so that makes me a sort of expert. The Council feels my experience with hunting a Spectre from my work with Shepard and having been her protégé all made me the most qualified Spectre for the job."

"Are you alright with hunting your mentor?"

"No, but I'm Turian and good Turians follow orders."

"Right, so do you know this Krogan that's with her? "

"Yeah, actually ran into him once, almost killed him before I started taking sniper fire, he managed to get away. His name's Urdnot Grunt and he's Shepard's bodyguard from what I can tell."

"Do you think the sniper was Shepard?"

"No."

"Why?"

"She wouldn't have missed."

"Unless she didn't want to kill you."

"Yeah, I thought about that, too."

"So, what're you going to do when you get her?"

"My orders are to bring her in, that seems a little more impossible than killing her, so I'm going to try and kill her."

"Try, that doesn't sound like you're confidant in your chances."

"I'm not and if you had seen her in action, you wouldn't either." Garrus sighed as the elevator opened to the penthouse and began to walk towards Nassana's office on the floor, "The best Spectre alive, former Alliance N7 Marine Commander, and labeled as hyper-lethal by STG Command, which is a label used for heavily entrenched planets and dreadnaughts."

"Goddess," Anaya said, the stress evident on her voice as he finished," I hope I'm a few miles away when you try and get this woman, no offense, Spectre."

"Don't worry, Detective, the chances I'll catch Shepard here of all places are slim, I'll be out of your hair before you know it." He reassured her as they entered Nassana's office and finding an Asari dressed in blue pacing behind the desk, talking into her omni-tool.

"It already done, we just need to find out who's behind it all." The Asari looked to them, and Garrus could see the recognition between her and the Detective. The Asari was armored heavily in blue, well-armed, too, everything about her gear yelled expensive and illegal; Spectre. "I'll have to call you back," she said, quickly hanging up her call and then turning to the two, keeping her focus on Garrus.

"Garrus Vakarian."

"Tela Vasir."

"Great, two Spectres on the same trail, the Chief's gonna have field day with this." Anaya said, rubbing her brow.

"What brings you here, Vasir?" Garrus asked curiously as the Asari came around the desk before leaning back and resting against it, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I've been investigating into the Shadow Broker, I had been talking with Nassana Dantius; an agent for the Broker, she's been my informant for the past two months. I was just looking through her files to see if someone had found her out somehow." She looked appraisingly at the Turian, sizing up the fellow Spectre, "How about you, Vakarian?"

"I have reason to believe my target is responsible for the death of your informant."

"And your target is?"

"Rogue Spectre Jane Shepard."

Vasir paused at that, for a small second that only Garrus really noticed. "Really? Well, that made this all the more interesting."

"How so?" Garrus asked, a hit of suspicion on his voice.

"I have reason to believe that whoever assassinated Nassana Dantius was working for the Shadow Broker; Nassana had to have been found out and then eliminated to be shut up."

"Hm, maybe, Shepard has been looking for something, she could be working for the Shadow Broker to get to it." Garrus said as he walked around the desk with Anaya still shadowing him, he unlocked the computer, and looked at the already open files. One name popped out as he looked: Liara T'Soni. "Liara T'Soni?" He asked looking up at Vasir, his visor bringing up Liara's STG dossier.

"Yes, a name that I've been investigating into more and more nowadays," Vasir said, venom seeping from the corners of her lips. "Nassana identified Dr. T'Soni as the Broker's top contact on Illium and while it would make sense that one of the most connected individuals would be and that I already know she is, I can't find anything that connects and she doesn't talk… Claims to be hunting him, actually. Bullshit."

"I don't see Liara as someone that would work for the Shadow Broker."

"You know her?"

"No," he lied, "But STG seems to have evidence that says she is working against the Broker."

"Hm, I've been working this case for months now and all the arrows point to Liara as being his top agent here."

"Then sounds like I need to go have a talk with Dr. T'Soni," Garrus said as he copied all of Nassana's files to his omni tool, moved around the desk and shook Vasir's hand before he and the Detective left the room.

Vasir reactivated her omni-tool and opened her call back up, "You want me to get rid of the Turian?"

"No," a deep echoing voice said from the other line, "Vakarian will create a good distraction to take the fire off of you; you need to concentrate on Dr. T'Soni, she must be eliminated."

"You think Nassana told Shepard about me?"

"I am certain she did before she was killed, Shepard wouldn't have killed her otherwise."

"Damn it."

"Don't worry, Shepard won't touch you unless your connection is found out, which is why eliminating T'Soni is a top priority for you."

"Understood."

"Get rid of the Detective that was with Vakarian, she knows too much for someone not on our payroll."

"Understood."

"You know you're mission, Spectre, get rid of this problem, immediately." The line went dead the next second.


End file.
